Avid golfers, professional and amateur alike, endlessly seek to improve their game and, especially the speed and form of their swing. Of particular importance is the form and acceleration of the downswing through the “hitting zone.”
Often a golfer seeking improvement may wish to compare his swing to that of a great golfer. However, visually monitoring one's own swing is problematic. It is difficult, of course, objectively and accurately to assess one's own swing during the actual act of swinging. Even when reproduced visually, on videotape for example, it is difficult to assess the speed and form of a swing because of the high speed at which the club moves.
The present invention provides a way for a golfer to generate an acoustic profile of his swing, and to compare it with the acoustic profile of a model golfer. This permits the golfer to listen to the sound made by a great golfer and then practice until he achieves the same sound pattern with regularity. The present invention provides an acoustic profile comprising two or more different sequential tones that reach maximum intensities from different primary tones or from the harmonics of those different primary tones. This complex profile provides a more accurate picture of a larger segment of the swing, not just the speed at the moment of ball strike. The golfer can easily hear the sound of his swing even while he is swinging. In addition, it is easier to compare the sound profiles of two selected swings than it is to compare the same swings visually.
To this end, the present invention provides an apparatus for generating an acoustic profile indicative of the acceleration of the golfer's club during the critical downswing and hitting zone phases of his swing. It will be appreciated that, although the present invention is described as applied to a swinging golf club, the apparatus of this invention will have many other applications in other sports and outside the field of athletics. For example, it is useful to evaluate the swing profile of other types of sports implements, such as baseball and softball bats, hockey and polo sticks, casting rods, and tennis, squash and racquetball rackets.